Cross-country or touring skiing is a very popular winter sport enjoyed by many. As is generally well known in the art, the skier is connected to the ski in a rotatable manner, so as to allow the heel of the skier to break contact with the upper surface of the ski. This method of attachment between the skier and the ski is most commonly provided by means of a specialist ski boot, which has a pin providing the rotation axis for the skier's foot. The pin of the ski boot is usually attached to a ski binding, and is held in a rotatable manner.
In general, a cross-country ski binding will have a flexor or a return spring for inducing the ski boot back into the normal position, where the heel of the ski boot is in contact with the upper surface of the ski. Flexors can take a variety of different shapes and designs, and are typically constructed such that they will rotate or be compressed when the ski boot rotates and its heel is brought off the upper surface of the ski.
In order to change the flexor on a ski binding, it is usually necessary to return the binding to a ski outlet. Further, spring based flexors, or the like, require specialist tools in order to change the resistive force which they apply. Indeed, most flexors are extremely difficult to change, and in some cases form an integral part of the binding. For those people able to change the flexors themselves during skiing, a further significant problem arises as a result of the temperature when skiing. As will be obvious, the ski is usually used in temperatures around or below 0° C. At such temperatures, traditional compressible flexors become extremely rigid and inflexible, thus making it extremely difficult to remove the flexor from the ski binding, as it is very hard to compress such a flexor by hand. Further, for professional or semi-professional skiers, the flexor is designed to be extremely resilient, and even when warm, this can be extremely difficult to compress and remove from the ski binding.
In light of the above problems, the present disclosure relates to a user-oriented flexor which can readily be exchanged in a ski binding according to the desires of the skier or the snow conditions. In particular, the flexor can be changed without requiring additional tools or expertise, and further can even be changed in the outdoors and at cold temperatures.